Archery bow



W. D. JORDAN May 29, 1934.

ARCHERY BOW Filed Aug. 21, 1939 IN VEN TOR Q6516 fifima/z A TTORNE Y.

Patented May 29, 1934 UNITED STATES ARCHERY Bow Wesley D. Jordan, South Bend, Ind., assignor to South Bend Bait Company, South Bend, Ind.

Application August 21, 1930, Serial No. 476,859

3 Claims.

The invention relates to archery bows and has for its object to provide a bow built up from laminations having curved grain, wherein the edge grain is in the line of draft of the bow, and the grain of adjacent laminations curving in opposite direction, whereby upon flexing of the bow there will not be a twisting action in the bow structure, incident to the grain curving in the same direction.

A further object is to form a bow or other shaft flexible in a predetermined plane extending longitudinally thereof from a plurality of laminations having curved grain, preferably of bamboo, and to position the grain of adjacent laminations in opposed edge grain relation, thereby preventing a twisting action in the bow or shaft upon flexing thereof.

A further object is to provide a laminated bow formed from bamboo with all of the edge grain in the line of draft of the bow, thereby increasing the strength and consequent throw of the bow.

A further object is to provide a laminated bow formed from bamboo, all sections of which have their edge grain in line of draft of the bow, and the grain of adjacent sections in opposed curved relation, whereby a twisting action on the bow body is preventedupon flexing of the bow.

A further object is to provide an archery bow formed from a plurality of layers, each layer being formed from laminations adhesively secured together and having transverse curved grain, and all of the laminations having their edge grain in the direction of draft of the bow, and the curved grain of each adjacent lamination extending in opposed relation.

With the above and other objects in view the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter set forth, shown in the drawing, described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the bow.

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical transverse taken on line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken on line 44 of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an end View of a piece of bamboo showing the method of cutting bow strips.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 1 desigsectional view nates a piece of bamboo from which the strips for making the bow are formed. It has been found that the strongest strips are obtained from the pieces of bamboo of smaller diameter as the grain is closer, and the grain structure more compact. In large pieces of bamboo, the grain is coarse, and as the size of a bow transversely is limited, it is obvious that the strongest strips should be obtained for forming the laminations of the bow.

By referring to Figure 5, in which an end view of a piece of bamboo is shown, the strips 2 are cut in circumferential arrangement as shown, whereby curved edge grains are obtained as indicated at 3 in the various figures. When the bow is built up from the strips 2, adhesively connected together at 4., it is obvious that the curved grains of each strip should be placed in opposed relation as clearly shown in Figure 2, whereby upon flexing of the bow, there will not be a twisting action on the bow, which would materially affect the accuracy of an arrow projected by the bow. It has been found that where the curved grain of the strip extends in the same direction, there is a decided twisting operation and this twisting operation or defect is corrected by the particular arrangement of the grain of the strip forming the laminations of the bow. The bow is of a conventional construction in general shape and may be built up from a plurality of layers a and I), each comprising a plurality of strips of bamboo, and if desired, the inner side of the bow may be provided with a hand engaging member 5, however applicant does not limit himself to this specific bow conin contests where extreme accuracy and strength of throw is necessary.

The strips 2 have their greatest transverse di-' mension in the line of draft of the bow, and to obtain this particular arrangement of grain and the transverse dimension of sufiicient length and from the smaller closer grain bamboos, the cutting of the strips 2 in circumferential arrangement shown in Figure 5 is particularly desirable, especially when it is considered that to get the proper strip width by cutting the strips radially it would be necessary to use the large coarse.

grained bamboos which are lacking in strength and flexibility incident to their coarser grain.

From the above it will be seen that a bow is provided which is formed from a plurality of laminations having their edge grain in the direction of draft of the bow and the curved grain of each lamination is in opposed relation to adjacent grain of adjacent laminations whereby during a flexing of the how the grain of the laminations will cooperate to prevent twisting of the bow during the flexing operation, consequently insuring an accurate flight of an arrow. It will also be seen that a method is provided Whereby the strips may be obtained from the bamboos of smaller diameters and the strips will have a curved grain in substantially the same relation, thereby insuring a positive cooperation when formed into the bow.

The invention having been set forth whatis claimed as new and useful is:

l. A flexible shaft'having a predetermined normal direction offlexure in a predetermined plane extending longitudinally thereof and formed of a plurality of bamboo laminations,

the wood of the laminations being flat sawn and having the fiat grain substantially parallel to said plane and extending lengthwise of the shaft.

2. A flexible shaft having a predetermined normal direction of flexure in a predetermined plane extending longitudinally thereof and formed of a plurality of bamboo laminations, the wood of the laminations being flat sawn and having the flat grain substantially parallel to said plane and extending lengthwise of the shaft, the adjacent laminations having the annual rings of the Wood in opposed relation.

3. A flexible shaft having a predetermined normal direction of fiexure in a predetermined plane extending longitudinally thereof and formed of a plurality of bamboo layers, each layer being formed from a plurality of laminations, said laminations and layers being secured together, the Wood of said laminations being fiat sawn and having the flat grain substantially parallel to said plane and extending lengthwise of the shaft, the adjacent laminations having the annual rings of the wood in opposed relation.

WESLEY D. JORDAN. 

